10 Amazing Apps That Make You Smarter

What are the best apps for brain training? Let’s look at the top brain-boosting apps that will put your mind into overdrive!

TED for Amazing Talks

YouTube isn't the only place that you can watch the famed TED Talks, featuring experts on science, technology, education, media, and more. Beyond watching the videos online, the TED app lets you download them for offline viewing. Browse through videos by subject, watch the videos that are suggested on your home page, or go random with the "Surprise Me" feature. With subtitles for over 100 languages, the app is great if English isn't your mother tongue.

Headspace to Keep Your Brain in Tune

Just like a car, your brain will work better with regular tune-ups, and there's overwhelming evidence that meditation can do just that. The Headspace app is a good simple way to start, beginning with short guided meditations designed to help you sleep better, reduce anxiety, and improve your overall mental health. The app lets you create a personalized meditation plan and track your progress.

Elevate for Mental Exercises

Developed by neuroscientists and cognitive learning experts, Elevate is a classic brain-training app in the best possible sense. And a fun one, with more than 35 games to fire up your synapses by engaging your abilities to calculate, focus, process information, as well as giving your language and speaking skills some workouts. Your scores are recorded to track your development, which is detailed in a daily progress report.

Eat Your Way to a Better Brain With Fooducate

The Fooducate app can make you smarter in two ways: you learn a lot about food and how to create a healthy diet; your brain simply works better when it's getting the right nutrients it needs, such as vitamin D, which is essential for brain function. The free app lets you set up a plan for popular diets such as Mediterranean, keto, and paleo. It also lets you search for different foods, even by scanning barcodes, for a breakdown of the carbs, fat, protein, and calories they contain. And it'll tell you if the wrong foods are part of your daily nutrition.

Plenty of Puzzles With Lumosity

Similar to Elevate, Lumosity uses games and puzzles to get your brain going. With more than 60 million users worldwide it's one of the most popular brain-training apps around. Begin with a three-game Fit Test to gauge your mental acuity compared to other users in your age group. Your score will be used in the creation of a personalized program designed to boost your brainpower, with detailed tracking of your progress.

Peak to Get Your Game On

The Peak app covers a wide range of cognitive abilities—math, logic, memory, problem-solving, emotion, focus, and even hand-eye coordination. With a whopping 45 brain games! Games with built-in statistics that let you watch your progress in real-time. Start by setting a goal, such as improving your memory or language skills, and follow a virtual coach through a personalized program.

Clockwork Brain Training

Clockwork Brain is all about puzzles. While these puzzles may share some similarities with those you'll find on Lumosity, Clockwork Brain's graphics offer more charm. A robot guide explains each game, which have vintage aesthetics and historical themes such as ancient Mayan ruins and 19th-century technology. Puzzles that target language skills, focus, memory, and more get increasingly difficult as you advance.

Flipboard to Manage Your Information Flow

Relying on an overload of news on sites and social media feeds to keep you up to date isn't a smart way to get your information. A better method is with the Flipboard app, which lets you choose what topics, social media, and news sources belong in your feed. Flipboard continually updates your feed, plus it takes your preferences to suggest other info you might be interested in. The day's top stories from each category you choose come to you through a "Daily Edition'' feature.

Eidetic to Target Memory

Targeting both short-term and long-term memory, the Eidetic app uses the proven technique of "spaced repetition" to help boost your ability to remember. Just as it sounds, the technique involves repeating things over spaced intervals, such as phone numbers, passwords, famous quotes, and credit card info, testing your ability to recall. The app even reminds you when it's time to take a test.

Tales from Today in History

With a name like Today in History, it's no great mystery what this app is all about. But what you don't know is what engaging stories you'll find on this daily cruise through history. Browse by date or categories including sports, entertainment, technology, and science. Historical tales come with engaging and informative images, all of which will definitely make you much smarter in the history department.

Sure, you might be really smart. But couldn’t you be even smarter? For that answer, you can simply download some great brain training apps and find out.

Written by William McCleary for Knockaround.